For those who grew up in the 80s and 90s, hearing the mention of “the Oregon Trail” brings back childhood memories of sitting in front of a computer screen – not sitting in an American history class. For those who grew up in the 80s, the mention of this video game brings to mind a slightly-pixelated black and white image of a Conestoga wagon pulled by oxen carrying a family of pioneers whose fates were controlled by the very hands that rested on the keyboard. Personally, The Oregon Trail was the only video game I every played and the Fifth Edition (2002) was much more colorful, cartoon-like animations than the original version. I can still relate, however, to the slightly pixelated-black and white image, titled “Map of the Oregon Trail,” that I’ve chosen to curate. Since its creation, The Oregon Trail has shaped the historical and geographic imagination of children by exposing them to a narrative of progress that consequently shaped our nation’s identity.
The success of this video game is largely due to how interactive and engaging it is for each player. Oregon Trail was originally created by educator Don Rawitsch who was looking for a more creative way to teach his middle school students about the American Western migration in the mid-1800s. In the 1980s, a Minnesota technology company developed the software for the program, using what was originally intended for a board game as the framework. Since its commercial release on the Apple II in 1985, the video game has been used as an interactive, engaging way of teaching children and adults alike about this period of American history. Starting a new game of The Oregon Trail means jumping into a virtual world to journey in a covered wagon across America’s Western frontier while still sitting in front of your computer screen.
This digital map in particular captures the essence of the game: to make an abstract simulation of the challenging and risky journey that pioneers faced on the Trail. What makes it even more captivating is that recreates a reality for each player that some 200,000 pioneers faced while trekking across America in the mid-1800s. It simultaneously recreates and reduces this reality, effectively trivializing this time period for the video game’s primary audience: children. It still, however, reveals some of the more unpleasant realities that the pioneers faced, such as when the wagon fords a river and its passengers drown tragically, or when pioneers suddenly, and uncontrollably, die of cholera. The video game, and map, looks even more realistic because the interface incorporates historically accurate data and geography, including the maps of the Oregon Trail that served as a model for the “Map of the Oregon Trail.” Therefore, in referring to this map I am also including the maps that were sourced to create it.
Wood said, “maps give us a reality that escape our vision…” (5). They allow us a glimpse into the past that we no longer have access to. We do, however, have access to all kinds of historical documents such as public records, journal entries, photographs, and maps that create a narrative of our past that we can understand and even relate to. At the same time, Wood also reminds us that we must use a critical lens in analyzing this map. It is important to understand that while the video game is interactive and allows players some control in its progress, they are also playing within the framework created by Don Rawitsch. We must focus on how the cartographer’s “interests” have crafted this framework and how the player is being exposed to his ideologies.
More specifically, these “interests” are Don Rawitsch’s set of values about American history and our national identity. Thinking about it from this perspective, the map is essentially a revision of the American history in the mid-1800s from the perspective of an American middle school history teacher in the 1980s. It looks at America in the 1850s, when our nation was a struggling provincial power, as an international power that has now fulfilled Manifest Destiny and expanded outside of its boarders during the twentieth and twenty first century. An analysis of this map reveals that the ideology promoted in this video game is that Western expansion was an inevitable journey towards progress. Since the map is a context-bound document, we should consider its historical background in order to reveal this hidden ideology.
One flaw of this map is that it is understated in terms of detail. It is simplified by the black and white color scheme, elementary shapes used for the five symbols in the legend, and bold print that labels the “start” and “finish” box on the Atlantic Coast and Pacific Coast, respectively. The line at the bottom left, “Press SPACE BAR to continue”, immediately reminds us that we are looking at an interactive map. You are in control of the route that is drawn across the map as your pioneer figures journey from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon.
Another flaw of this map is it portrays the relationship between the mostly white male pioneers and Native Americans as friendly and non-violent, completely dismissing the tension between these two cultures that escalated as white settlers pushed further West. It captures this period of aggressive land expansion characterized by white male dominance, though fails to reveal the devastating effect our presence in the West had on Native American culture. It also ignores the fear that pervaded settlers towards a culture that was portrayed maliciously and, therefore, terribly misunderstood. One symbol on this map that may allude to this tension is the presence of military forts, which usually began as posts that sold supplies to pioneers. When they eventually became established towns along the Trail, they often pushed out nearby Native American tribes from the community. This example illustrates Harley’s idea of silences, where maps exclude details that undermine the cartographer’s interests.
These silences are problematic because they contribute to an incomplete narrative of America in the mid-1800s. The map leaves out how the shaping of our national identity consequently had a negative impact on other cultures and the landscape during the same period. It fails to give a full picture of American expansion during this era; however, the lack of detail is appropriate, if not necessary, for the video game’s interface and its target audience, middle school students. Here in lies the challenge of creating educational tools such as interactive maps in video games: choosing what to include and what not to include. Thus, to analyze this map, we must primarily think about why the cartographer chooses to include certain information about a historical event or time period over other information.
Though it contains hidden ideologies and certain silences, “Map of the Oregon Trail” is still an effective tool for teaching children about American history. Rather than ruining a childhood memory, critiquing this map has only emphasized that behind every perspective on history lies an ideology that must be viewed contextually for a greater understanding a historical event or time period. Oregon Trail, as it has already proven, has the potential to teach players about the American Western migration in an interactive, engaging fashion for generations to come.
Works Cited
Scimeca, Dennis. “Why Oregon Trail Still Matters.” The Kernel RSS. N.p., 17 Aug. 2014. Web. 26 Sept. 2014.
Wood, Denis, and John Fels. The Power of Maps. New York: Guilford, 1992. Print.
Grosvenor, Emily. “Going West: The World of Live Action, Competitive Oregon Trail.” The Atlantic. N.p., 25 Sept. 2014. Web. 26 Sept. 2014.
This blog, Map Fail is a collection of erroneous maps. Each post highlights a mistake, for example, when a country isn’t where it’s supposed to be or when information is misrepresented.
West Point Military Academy has a nice collection of historical atlases on its Department of History website that show political and cultural conflict from Ancient Warfare to the First Gulf War.
http://www.westpoint.edu/history/SitePages/Our%20Atlases.aspx
Definitely a blast from the past. It always seemed odd that this was one of few games we were allowed to play in lower school. Although largely stripped down, the Oregon Trail map serves to familiarize. It is the subtle recreation of a journey; and, although subject to historical revision, is an excellent mode of education. A historical label might deter even a matured student of a young age, but hidden behind a game and a map, the story comes alive. Suddenly, the kid who never pays attention in class is enthralled. The map is not a picture, it is a diversion. Where harmless, or perhaps beneficial, the rhetorical quality of such work is lauded, but on the political front we should be weary of the same tactics.
I love the map you chose to post! Although I have never played the video game, the background you gave helped me to understand how very relevant this map is! It definitely helps children that may not otherwise understand the true magnitude of this trail and its history learn in detail what the pioneers that walked it truly went through, although the true complexity of it is not there. Furthermore, the fact that this is a children’s game and is lacking this complexity may lead to important details being left out. This is where Harley’s concept of silences comes into play, which was touched on in the post. These should be highly considered when contemplating the credibility of such a map. This map is giving the many children who play it a biased version of the Oregon Trail through the silences. Leaving out the tension between the Native Americans and the white pioneers and the oppression the Native Americans faced may seem necessary for a children’s game, but this does not truly portray why the Oregon Trail was such an atrocity. Although it is educating today’s children about an important historical event, it may be doing more harm than good in biasing their view.